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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27693788">And They Were Roommates</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/silentterror/pseuds/silentterror'>silentterror</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NCT (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, Developing Relationship, Genderqueer Character, Idiots in Love, Jealousy, M/M, Multi, Mutual Pining, Polyamory Negotiations, Slow Burn, Strangers to Lovers, but like not THAT slow because i’m WEAK</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 02:53:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,831</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27693788</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/silentterror/pseuds/silentterror</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Yuta never expected two amazing roommates when he finally moved off campus. He also didn’t expect to fall for them both, leading to lots of internal yelling and confusion.<br/><br/>Yuta <em>really</em> didn’t expect his roommates to fall for him as well.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lee Taeyong/Nakamoto Yuta, Lee Taeyong/Nakamoto Yuta/Suh Youngho | Johnny, Lee Taeyong/Suh Youngho | Johnny, Nakamoto Yuta/Suh Youngho | Johnny</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>138</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. first meeting</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is dedicated to my two best friends on twitter. Two people who I love dearly and who helped encourage me to write when I felt down about it.</p><p>Bun. Kida. You guys truly are incredible and I appreciate you both so much.</p><p>Shout out to Bun for the amazing mood board. </p><p>And shout out to Roman for beta reading this for me.</p><p>(i don’t know if anyone wants to be linked, but when i find out, i’ll fix that.)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p><p>Yuta was lost. What was he supposed to do when both of his roommates were hot as fuck? And not just hot! They were also kind, caring, and loving too! What the fuck!?</p><p>Being a sophomore in college, Yuta had the luxury of choosing off campus housing, but not necessarily his roommates. Which is how the three of them ended up meeting. Yuta had to fill out a questionnaire when he applied for his apartment lease. He didn't think it would amount to anything and that the development would just assign random people to be his roommates. But after meeting the other two residents of their townhouse, he began to rethink that idea.</p><p>Taeyong was the first one he met.</p><p>Yuta was given a key to the apartment the day he was allowed to start moving, yet when he arrived in the early afternoon, he had found an Asian man, about his size, already unpacking boxes in the kitchen. He had to have started at the crack of dawn, or he just moved faster than Yuta did.</p><p>"Hey," Yuta said, idling around the front door. He wanted to start getting his stuff in the building, but he also didn't want to be rude and walk out on his new roommate.</p><p>"Hey!" the other man called as he straightened up from putting something away in the cabinet under the sink. "My name's Taeyong. I see they might have actually paid attention to the questionnaire." The stranger- Taeyong, busied himself with another box while talking, his hair at the exact length to get in his eyes while he worked.</p><p>"Yea, two Asians in one apartment. Heh. What languages do you speak?" Yuta finally decided to reach out of the front door and lock his car with his keyfob before closing the door. First impressions were the most important and he was not about to seem rude in front of his new, cute roommate. Woah. Cute? When did he start to think that?</p><p>The sharp clack of another cabinet closing brought Yuta back from his thoughts. "English and Korean. I know a few words in both Mandarin and Japanese, but not nearly enough to get by. I am taking a Japanese course this year, though." The clang of metal told Yuta Taeyong must be putting away silverware in the drawer he had opened beside the fridge. Yuta was beginning to feel like a deadweight, still standing in the first few feet of his new living room, despite having nothing to immediately put away.</p><p>"Cool. I can help you in that course if you need it. I am a native Japanese speaker. I know English, obviously, and I know next to no Korean. Really, I just know Japanese and English.”</p><p>“I will probably need the help. I don’t know why I decided to take the course when I barely know anything of it, but I guess I just thought I’d need to know more? It’s pretty neat I ended up with a Japanese roommate the year I decided to learn Japanese.” </p><p>Taeyong was rambling. <em> Neat, </em> he said. God, he was cute. No, stop Yuta. You are absolutely <em> not </em> allowed to think your brand new roommate is cute. That crosses so many lines.</p><p>“Well, I’d be happy to help. Hey, I hate to seem like I’m running away, but I do want to start getting some of my boxes at least into the house. Is it cool with you if I leave the door open while I do?” Truthfully, Yuta just needed a moment away from the cute man with the dark, silky hair. </p><p>“Not at all! Do what you have to do. This is your home now, too, afterall.”</p><p>Oh no, Taeyong was really sweet. That might be a problem for the future. </p><p>“I’d offer to help, but you look like you could throw me around like a sack of potatoes, so I don’t know if my help would be necessary.”</p><p>Mhm, yep. It was going to be a long year.</p><p>Finally, he was done after many trips back and forth, lots of sweat on his brow, and an excessive amount of comments from Taeyong that Yuta was sure were supposed to be innocent, but his brain kept hearing them as suggestive. If Taeyong was doing it on purpose, then Yuta was <em> definitely </em>in for a long year.</p><p>He had all his boxes and totes stacked neatly beside the front door when he decided it was time to take a break. Luckily, Taeyong seemed to think the same thing and brought a large pitcher of water to the apartment supplied coffee table right in front of the also supplied sectional.</p><p>"You worked hard, here take a break," Taeyong said as he sat lightly on the couch, pouring them both a glass of water.</p><p>"Where did you get all of this stuff anyway? I saw you putting dishes away already. I thought we'd have to buy that this week or something," Yuta said as he lounged on the same side of the sectional, but still a respectable distance for strangers. No one could blame Yuta for his curiosity. The other man looked to be about his age, therefore most likely in his year. The foreign kids were required to stay on campus for freshman year, so most of the time no one had anything when they moved out the next year. For some reason that didn't seem to be the case with Taeyong.</p><p>Said man had started to blush a bit as he fiddled with the edge of his glass. "Even though I technically lived in the dorms, I moved in with my boyfriend in the second semester. He was a silly, privileged, white kid who never ate at the house. He didn't have any dishes or pots or pans or anything. I bought all of the kitchen supplies, plus some other basic living things. When we split up, I took everything I bought. Soooo, I have it now! I'm glad I do, too. We can actually eat dinner and not have to get take-out if we don't want to!"</p><p>Watching Taeyong speak was giving Yuta whiplash. At first the man seemed a bit forlorn and embarrassed, but by the time he was done speaking, he was full of life and excitement. He was an interesting person that was for sure.</p><p>Yuta was trying to think of something to say when his oncoming headache was rescued by a loud bang at the front door. The noise was quickly followed by a curse and then the knob twisting.</p><p>On the other side of the door was an incredibly good looking man struggling to carry and balance a game console on top of a tote. Oh no, please don't let him be the other roommate. Yuta would never survive if he had <em> two </em>hot roommates.</p><p>"Oh hey! You guys must be my new roommates," the new stranger half yelled as he finally managed to sit the precariously stacked tote and console on the ground, almost knocking Yuta's tower of boxes down in the process. "My name's Johnny. Nice to meet, y'all!"</p><p>Fuck. He was cute too.</p><p>Yuta was never going to live to see the holidays, let alone the summer.</p><p>"Nice to meet you Johnny! I'm Taeyong! This is Yuta. He seems a little on the skittish side, so ignore his quietness."</p><p>That little shit. Taeyong didn't even know him, yet here he was, introducing Yuta like they had been long term pals.</p><p>"I seem a little what now? Skittish? I have never been called anything of the sort in my life. I simply don't know you." Suddenly a thought clicked into Yuta's mind. "Wait, are you calling me skittish because I left the room to start bringing my stuff in? I <em> told </em>you that I wasn't running away."</p><p>Taeyong was laughing at him. Full, body shaking giggles. That was cool. Yuta <em> loved </em> to be laughed at when he wasn't trying to be funny. Yes, that <em> was </em> sarcasm.</p><p>Although, maybe it wasn't so bad when Taeyong looked so damn cute while he was laughing.</p><p>"Nice. Well, anyways. Where y'all from?"</p><p>Yuta heard the distinct sound of a car alarm arming before Johnny closed the front door and flopped onto the perpendicular arm of the sectional.</p><p>"I'm from Japan," Yuta said quickly, wanting to answer for himself instead of letting Taeyong do it for him.</p><p>"Cool! So you know Japanese, yea?"</p><p>Johnny was adorable. He was too big and broad to be this adorable. Why was he like this? </p><p>“Yea, that kinda is what happens when you are from Japan,” Yuta snapped back, immediately regretting his level of snark. They had to live together for at least the next semester, Yuta really should try to be nice to his roommates. Hating each other was a solid way to make life Too Difficult.</p><p>“Oooh, you’re sassy. That’s fun,” Johnny said with a laugh. Ok, good, he wasn’t upset.</p><p>Taeyong was off to the side still in a fit of giggles, but finally managed to speak in between bursts, “I’m from Korea.”</p><p>“Oh shit, dude! No way! I’m Korean American. I don’t know nearly as much Korean as my mom would like me to, but ya know. I try.”</p><p>Taeyong continued to giggle, but managed to say something that Yuta couldn’t understand, presumably in Korean.</p><p>Johnny responded, but much slower and with an obvious accent.</p><p>Taeyong started into a new wave of fresh giggles, which spurred Johnny into giggles, and consequently Yuta into a fit as well, despite having no idea what was funny. </p><p>Finally, after many minutes of pure laughter, Yuta and Johnny were able to calm down. Taeyong had to resort to breathing exercises, but was eventually also able to calm down.</p><p>"Ok, so, it is the evening and we're going to have to sleep at some point, later. Have you guys picked out bedrooms yet?" Johnny asked, being the first to fully calm down and start to think straight.</p><p>"No, I haven't even left this room, honestly," Yuta said, suddenly wondering what the rest of the apartment or house or townhouse, whatever you wanted to call it, looked like.</p><p>"I put my stuff in the basement bedroom if that is ok. There is a free room down there that isn't a bedroom that I thought we could turn into a rec room or game room or something. But I am studying music composition and know I can sometimes be noisy, so I figured the basement would be best for me to not bother you guys." Taeyong looked sheepish while talking, as though the others would get upset that he was trying to be considerate. Yuta couldn't help but wonder if Taeyong had always been like that, or if someone conditioned him to be worried he made the wrong move at all times. It made Yuta sad and he was suddenly overwhelmed with the urge to protect the other man.</p><p>"Works for me! Yuta?" Johnny was looking at Yuta with eyes that mirrored Yuta's thoughts. It was unspokenly settled. Taeyong would be protected at all costs.</p><p>"No issue here. I do like my sleep to be unbothered so I definitely don't mind the lack of noise." Yuta just met Taeyong not even 6 hours ago, yet he would already give him the world if he asked for it.</p><p>Oof, he needed to slow down that train of thought asap. Well, it wasn't like Johnny looked like he thought any differently.</p><p>"Ok, so Yuta and I will go upstairs and figure out what rooms we want. I think we should order pizza and hang out. Y'all, thankfully, seem cool and I think we could end up being really great friends."</p><p>Aw, Johnny was so cute looking so hopeful like that.</p><p>"Ew, you're gross. Why would I want to be friends with you?" Yuta said with a smile while at the same time Taeyong nodded quickly and said, "Yes, of course!"</p><p>Johnny only laughed before standing up and holding a hand out to Yuta, "Come on, my dude."</p><p>Yuta allowed himself to be pulled up into a standing position, but lost his balance from how quickly it happened, resulting in his body falling directly into Johnny's arms.</p><p>Holy shit, Johnny was strong.</p><p>"If you keep sassing me like that, I'll feel the need to put you in your place, you little brat," Johnny whispered in Yuta's ear before pulling away.</p><p>Surely Yuta heard wrong, right? There was <em> no way </em> Johnny said that.</p><p>"You coming?" Johnny called from the other side of the room.</p><p>It was definitely going to be a <em> long </em>year. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. ride or die</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Weeks passed and Yuta was convinced he heard Johnny wrong. There was simply no way Johnny was flirting with him. Especially since Johnny was painfully straight. Well, technically, Yuta had no way of knowing Johnny's sexuality, but his gaydar was suspiciously silent when around his roommate. And Yuta prided himself on his 100% accurate gaydar thus far. After all, it got him through all of high school and his first year of college without awkwardly hitting on any straight boys who would react negatively to that kind of attention.</p>
<p>It had only been a few weeks since they moved in, but in that time, Johnny had already brought home at least three different women. Not that Yuta was judging, Johnny was free to live his best hoe life, but Yuta was beginning to regret agreeing to have a room sharing a wall with him.</p>
<p>There was absolutely nothing wrong with having an active sex life, in fact Yuta encouraged it. Sex was great, it was fun and did <em> not </em> have to be any specific way. Everyone was free to enjoy sex however they want, so long as it was consensual. With that being said, though, he really did prefer to have his sleep uninterrupted. He especially wasn't a fan of waking up to obnoxious, high pitched <em> female </em> moans. He was a <em> very </em>gay man after all...</p>
<p>At least Taeyong's flirtation attempts didn't let up. If anything, they only became more frequent. It initially was a little overwhelming; he was used to being the confident gay who flirted with every one! It was a welcome change, though. Being flirted with made him feel wanted instead of feeling like he was being put up with. </p>
<p>Previous insecurities did make him wonder how much of the flirting was legitimate and how much was just innocent fun due to proximity. Yuta couldn't be sure if he cared either way. It was fun, it was reassuring. If it was innocent, that was fine. It just meant he was worth the time to play around with.</p>
<p>Oh wow. Leave it to some casual roommate flirting to bring forth all of Yuta's deep internal thoughts about himself and his worth. Maybe he should look into therapy? Could he even afford therapy? That sounded like a tomorrow problem.</p>
<p>After lots of battling with his own voice in his head, Yuta opted to call his long time best friend to get his opinion on how to tackle the "Johnny gets too much sex so I can't sleep at night and I'm worried my grades will start to fall because I am too tired to focus" issue.</p>
<p>"Maaarrrrrrkkkkkkk," Yuta whined at his laptop.</p>
<p>"Noooonnnnaaaaaa," a matching whine sounded from the speakers. "I miss you so much. I can't believe next semester I get to enroll! I can still visit you in the fall, though right?"</p>
<p>"Of course! What do you take me for? A man who just ups and forgets about his ride or die? Never!" Yuta meant every word he said. Mark was truly his ride or die. The only man he could count on 100%. He couldn't even count on his own father as much as he could trust Mark.</p>
<p>They met when Yuta was at the ripe old age of 6 years old. Mark was only 2, but Yuta was enamored and wouldn't leave the baby's side. Mark's family was visiting Korea to see if they wanted to move back from Canada. Yuta's family was on their annual vacation in Korea. By all accounts, they never should have met and shouldn't have become as close as they were. They didn't even know the same language. Mark couldn't speak, but could understand basic Korean and English. Yuta was just beginning to learn English and was still struggling with Japanese.</p>
<p>Baby Mark, for some unknown reason, wouldn't let go of Yuta when their parents tried to pull them away from each other at the beach. Yuta, ever the softy, even as a toddler, wouldn't let his mom pull him away because it led to Mark crying every time. Eventually their parents gave up and began to struggle through introductions and making friends.</p>
<p>Between Yuta's mom's broken English and his dad's broken Korean, they were able to become friends with the Lees. Thus starting a tradition of meeting every summer, then eventually every winter as well.</p>
<p>As Mark and Yuta grew older, they only grew more inseparable. They would take turns spending the entire summer at each other's houses. Airports became just as comfortable to them as the bus stops in their hometowns. Mark was the first person Yuta came out to as gay and then eventually as genderfluid. Yuta was the first person Mark came out to as bisexual.</p>
<p>They were each other's people. No one could come between them. They never fought, never had a falling out, and never experimented with each other, contrary to popular belief. Even 13 years later, at 19 (soon to be 20) and 16, they were just as close. Mark was Too Smart for his own good and would soon be joining Yuta in college; a thought that terrified literally everyone in Mark's life except for Mark himself.</p>
<p>Why would he be scared when he had Yuta there to protect him? They were going to be in the same program after all.</p>
<p>"Dude, my courses are kicking my ass this semester. Are <em> sure </em>you want to join in this torture with me?"</p>
<p>The sound Mark made through the video call managed to resemble an offended pigeon and a startled goat. "Of course! You know lit is my true love, second only to music."</p>
<p>"Ok, so study music instead. The literature program here is no joke."</p>
<p>"Right. Ok, sure. Let <em> me, </em> the highest ranking student in my entire school, with a 1690 SAT score and very stereotypical Asian parents, choose music as my major. You know how hard I had to fight to be allowed to pick lit? No fucking way they would let me pick <em> music. </em>At least with literature I could pitch the idea of getting an eventual PHD and researching the history of some of our most classic pieces of literature."</p>
<p>"Mark, take a breath please. I don't think you breathed once during that spiel." Yuta was so fond. Mark wasn't quite like a brother. He was just so much more than that to Yuta.</p>
<p>"Right, sorry. I'm breathing. Look." Mark, ever the well trained drama queen, courtesy of Yuta of course, made a show of inhaling deeply and exhaling loudly.</p>
<p>"Thank you," Yuta said with a smile. "Anyways, my roommate situation has gotten simultaneously better and worse."</p>
<p>"Oh? Do tell," Mark said in his best "spill the tea" voice.</p>
<p>Yuta pulled his legs up to his chest in his chair, resting his chin on his knees. Sitting regularly was for the straights, he was all about comfortable positions resulting in bad posture. "Well, Taeyong still flirts which is <em> delightful</em>, but Johnny hasn't teased at all. Which is good, ya know, for my sanity. But Johnny also won't let me fucking sleep because he can't seem to go a night without either bringing home someone or jerking off <em> loudly. </em>If I don't get some solid z's in the next 48 hours I am going to keel over and die and you're going to have to sue Johnny for involvement in my death."</p>
<p>"Damn. How does my mom wonder where I got my theatrics from?" Mark asked while staring in awe at his screen. "Just talk to the dude, man. He seems chill, I'm sure he just doesn't realize how thin the walls are. Do you ever make noise that would cause him to know?"</p>
<p>"No. First of all, I don't even have time to get off. Secondly, no one has shown to be worthy of me bringing them home yet, this semester. So it has been a rather unfortunate dry spell."</p>
<p>"Well, if you want to be a reasonable person and handle your problems like an adult, you can just talk to him. But considering I know you better than I know myself, I am sure you're going to pick my second option. Which is being as petty as possible by being <em> very </em>loud, either with yourself or a hookup."</p>
<p>"Mark Lee, you're a genius. This is why you're my ride or die."</p>
<p>"Right, it definitely has nothing to do with the fact that I have proven I will do literally anything for you since I was 2 fucking years old."</p>
<p>"Nope. Not at all."</p>
<p>Video calls were hard. They made Yuta miss Mark even more, despite being able to see and talk to him in real time. He should start a countdown calendar somewhere. Maybe it would quell his excitement at having Mark in the same 5 mile radius in just a few short months.</p>
<p>After wrapping up the call with a promise of calling again Sunday night, Yuta was left sitting in his room with nothing to do at 6 o'clock on a Thursday night. Maybe it was time to eat? He hadn't had anything since breakfast. Yea, definitely time to eat.</p>
<p>He meandered his way downstairs where he found Taeyong curled into a ball on the lounge side of the sectional. He appeared to be fast asleep, so Yuta quietly made his way around the living room and into the kitchen. Time passed quickly as Yuta whipped up a meal of chicken, rice, and broccoli. Before setting about to eat his own portion, he poked his head into the living room to see if there was any sign of life from his roommate.</p>
<p>When he found a still napping boy, Yuta decided to portion out two meals, pack them away into the fridge, eat his own meal, and then put away the leftovers. Before retiring upstairs for the night, he left a note on their whiteboard on the fridge saying there were meals prepared for the others.</p>
<p>He even left a little heart beside the scrawled words.</p>
<p>Later, the overthinking side of his brain would begin to question if he overdid it with the heart, but his phone pinging with notifications in their roommate group chat quelled all of his concerns.</p>

<p></p><blockquote>
  <p><em>BDE johnny</em><br/>Thanks for the food~ &lt;3</p>
  <p><em>best boy TY</em><br/>def needed that after my nap, ty bb</p>
  <p>                                                                   dont start expecting it<br/>                                                                       but, youre welcome<br/>                                                                                                 &lt;3</p>
</blockquote>
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